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UTV Software Communications
| founders = Ronnie Screwvala Zarina Screwvala | hq_location_city = Mumbai | hq_location_country = India | key_people = Mahesh Samat (Managing director) | products = Cable television, publishing, films, music, video games, broadcasting | owner = | parent = The Walt Disney Company India | divisions = | subsid = | website = }} UTV Software Communications (abbreviated as UTV) is an Indian mass media conglomerate owned by The Walt Disney Company India. UTV was incorporated as United Television Software Communications on 22 June 1990 by Ronnie and Zarina Screwvala. The company later became public, on 27 November 1995, and was renamed to UTV Software Communications effective 19 March 1998. UTV was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Indian National Stock Exchange, and its motion picture division, UTV Motion Pictures Plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM). In August 2006, The Walt Disney Company acquired a 14.85 percent stake in UTV. This was subsequently hiked to 32.1 percent in 2008, the same level as UTV's founders Ronnie Screwvala and Zarina Screwvala. The remaining shares were publicly traded. Disney eventually increased its ownership in UTV to 100% in 2012, making UTV Communications Software a wholly owned subsidiary. History At the time of incorporation, the group was primarily engaged in the production of television content for Doordarshan-Prasar Bharti and production of ad films. In 1992, with the entry of satellite TV, Zee TV commissioned the group to produce around 250 hours of content, making it one of the largest content providers. Around this time, it also expanded into the businesses of in-flight entertainment programming and dubbing. In 1993, the company acquired programs from outside producers and marketing airtime for UTV channels. In 1995, it launched a daily soap titled "Shanti" and ventured into the movie distribution business. In May 1995, it acquired a 54.60% stake in Laezer Production to enter the area of post-production. Laezer Production was incorporated on 29 January 1982 and became a public company effective 27 November 1995. Subsequent to the acquisition of the 54.60% UTV Group stake, Laezer Production was renamed as UTV Studios in December 1995. At that time, United Studios Limited (USL) was engaged in the business of providing post-production facilities to television software houses, private producers and advertisers. In 1996, Disney contracted the UTV Group to dub its distributed feature film library into Indian languages. During this year, the company’s In-flight Entertainment division, which was supplying Air India only, started catering to other international airlines. In 1998, the company's subsidiary USL took over Ram Mohan Biographies, an animation production house pioneered by Ram Mohan, one of the leading animation artists in the country. The animation division in USL was called RM-USL and thereafter was rebranded as UTV Toons and remained as a division of USL. The company then diversified into broadcasting by acquiring a controlling interest in Vijay Television in November 1998. Vijay Television was incorporated on 30 May 1996 and operated Vijay TV, a 24-hour Tamil-language channel out of Chennai. The Udayar family of Chennai initially controlled the channel as a general-entertainment network since 1992. United Breweries Group acquired the operational control of the channel in 1995 and the name was changed to Vijay TV. The UTV Group acquired the controlling interest from the United Breweries Group. In 2000, it incorporated a group company called UTV Net Solutions, in which it held an 86% stake. UTVNet was in the business of Internet content creation and aggregation, Indian regional language portals (with dual language content) and leveraging of their audiovisual library rights for Internet use. In 2000, UTVNet started the business of broadband content aggregation under the brand name sharkstream.com, through its subsidiary Sharkstream.com Pte. Ltd., Singapore. From 2000 to 2001, the UTV Group initiated a corporate restructuring exercise to consolidate their holdings in certain group companies and subsidiaries. Its main goal was to maximise shareholder value, remove conflict of interest and build a powerful combined entity. From 2002 to 2003, the group acquired the studio business of Western Outdoor Media Technologies (WOMTL) to attain leadership position in the post-production, special effects and animation businesses. The studio operations of WOMTL were thus merged with the group’s post-production business. In October 2005, after a $10 million outsourcing partnership with US-based BKN New Media Inc., UTV Toons moved to expand to 200 employees and purchased additional software licenses. Acquisition by Disney Between 2007 and 2011, UTV was targeted for an acquisition by Fuse Global and Global Media Fund. Both corporations had approached UTV Software Communications and made several attempts to play a role in becoming a financier to the studio, but neither deals materialised. The Walt Disney Company acquired a 50.44 per cent stake in the company, making them the majority shareholder and bringing the company into the Disney group, and in 2011, Disney offered to acquire the outstanding shares of UTV Software Communications held by public shareholders and stakeholders of the company in a deal valued around Rs 20 billion (US$297 million). Upon the buyout, the company was delisted from both the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India and became a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company in 31 January 2012, being re-organised under The Walt Disney Company (South East Asia) Pte Ltd. Corporate structure Subsidiaries/joint ventures As of 31 March 2009, the company has the following subsidiaries and joint ventures: UTV Motion Pictures (UMP) PLC UTV Motion Pictures (UMP) was a division created on 27 March 2007. On 2 July 2007, UMP Plc shares were admitted to trading on Alternate Investment Market ("AIM") of the London Stock Exchange. UTV Software Communications holds a 76.82% controlling stake of UMP Plc which in turn holds a 99.75% controlling stake in UTV Motion Pictures (Mauritius) Limited. UTV Communications (USA) LLC (UTV USA) UTV Communications (USA) LLC is a subsidiary created on 26 April 2004 with the goal of carrying out film acquisition, syndication and distribution business in the United States. IG Interactive Entertainment Limited (IG) IG is a subsidiary created on 6 September 2004 with the mission to carry out film acquisition, syndication and distribution business in the United Kingdom. UTV TV Content Limited (UTV TV) UTV TV Content Limited (UTV TV) is a division created on 9 July 2007 to carry on the business of producing, exhibiting and distribution of television series. RB Entertainment Limited ("RBEL"), a 60/40 joint venture between UTV TV and Rajesh Beri, was created on 6 May 2008 to produce content for television channels. First Future Agri and Developers Limited (FFADL) First Future Agri and Developers Limited (FFADL) was created on 7 April 2008. On 11 June 2008, UTV acquired a 100% equity stake in FFADL for a consideration of Rs. 100,000, thereby making it a wholly owned subsidiary of that company. On 25 March 2009 FFADL further allotted 15.99 million equity shares at par to UTV. The status of FFADL was changed from a private limited company to public limited company on April 29, 2009. UTV Global Broadcasting Limited (UGBL) UTV Global Broadcasting Limited (UGBL) is a division of UTV created on 6 June 2007 as a broadcaster for satellite television channels in India. On 8 August 2008 UTV acquired a 75% stake in equity shares of UGBL. UGBL is a parent company for its two wholly owned subsidiaries, Genx Entertainment Limited (Genx) and UTV Entertainment Limited (UETL). Genx and UETL are engaged in the business of up linking and broadcasting entertainment for non-news and current affairs channels from India. On 30 September 2009, UTV acquired an additional 10% equity stake in UGBL from Unilazer Exports and Management Consultants Limited ("Unilazer") for a total consideration of the total stake of the company in UGBL increased to 85%. UTV Games Limited (UTV Games) UTV Games Limited is a division of UTV created on 5 September 2008 to oversee all of its video game assets. On 10 September 2008, UTV Games Limited acquired an 80% equity stake in True Games Interactive Inc, (True Games) an online gaming start-up company based in California (United States) thereby making True Games a downstream subsidiary of the company. UTV New Media Limited (UNML) UTV New Media Limited (UNML) is a division of UTV created on 20 September 2007. It develops and maintains websites and acquisition and exploitation of online rights on mobile, gaming and web platforms. UTV New Media was the division that managed UTV's video game development companies. Smriti Irani Television Limited (SITL) Smriti Irani Television Limited is a 50/50 joint venture between UTV and Smriti Irani created on 6 December 2007 to house the joint venture with Irani for television content production. UTV Toons Limited UTV forayed into animation production in 1998 with the acquisition of Ram Mohan Biographies. UTV's division, UTV Toons, handles its animation business. Film production and distribution UTV ventured into film distribution in 1996 with its UTV Motion Pictures Plc. division. UTV Motion Pictures portfolio includes Hindi-language movies, regional South Asian movies, domestic animated features and international productions and co-productions. The studio's rights and distribution are currently held exclusively by The Walt Disney Company India which uses UTV Motion Pictures as the exclusive distributor for its films in South Asian markets. It has filled this role since 2013. Television production UTV started off producing television content and advertisements, partnering with Indian state-broadcaster Doordarshan in 1990. With the entry of satellite television to India, UTV expanded its functions and produced television programmes for other Indian TV channels, such as Zee TV and Star Plus. In 1995, UTV produced India's first daily soap opera, Shanti, for Doordarshan. UTV was also contracted by Disney to dub its cartoons in Hindi. Revenues from the television segment increased by 31% from Rs. 1,006 million in the previous year to Rs. 1,317 million during the year primarily because of the growth in the television business. The segment reported a profit of Rs. 54 million, compared to Rs. 180 million in the previous year. The following is the complete list of TV programmes produced by UTV: Broadcasting UTV entered into broadcasting through its acquisition of Vijay TV from United Breweries. It was later sold to Star TV in two phases, in 2001 and 2004. In 2004, UTV launched Hungama TV, a kids channel for the South Asian market. This channel was sold to Disney India in 2006. Hungama TV was re-integrated into UTV Software Communications after it became a subsidiary to Disney. In 2008, UTV re-entered the broadcasting business through its broadcast arm, UTV Global Broadcasting Ltd (UGBL). All UTV channels are now part of Disney India Media Networks * Bindass * Bindass Play (Defunct) * UTV Action (formerly Bindass Movies) * UTV Movies * UTV Stars (Defunct) * UTV Movies International (International service available in North America, United Kingdom) * UTV World Movies (Defunct) Gaming In December 2007, UTV's ventured into production of gaming software and content through its subsidiary UTV Media by acquiring Indiagames Ltd., an Indian gaming company. It later went on to acquire Ignition Entertainment and True Games. After Disney acquired UTV Software Communications as a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India, it liquidated UTV Ignition Games assets. Partnerships The UTV Group’s relationships include the following. * UTV is credited as a co-producer with 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures for ‘The Namesake’, ‘I Think I Love My Wife’ and ‘The Happening’ through UTV Mauritius and USA. * UTV is associated with Verizon, Vodafone and AirTel and over 80 telecom companies worldwide for mobile game publishing, new media and online gaming through UTV Indiagames. * UTV is associated with Coca-Cola, PepsiCo/Pepsi, Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motor Company, Hindustan Unilever, P&G, Cadbury, Airtel, Reckitt Benckiser, Godrej and Johnson & Johnson for sponsorship and branding relationships across various TV channels and content titles. * UTV has partnered with Virgin Comics to create original superhero franchises across platforms exclusively for the imprint. * UTV has worked with Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. in the console gaming business through UTV Ignition Games. * UTV has relationships for television content with Star India, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, National Geographic Channel and Sun TV. References External links * Official website Category:UTV Software Communications Category:Media companies of India Category:Companies based in Mumbai Category:Television production companies of India Category:Entertainment companies of India Category:Film organisations in India Category:Indian dubbing studios Category:Software companies based in Mumbai Category:Software companies established in 1990 Category:Media companies established in 1990 Category:Indian companies established in 1990 Category:1995 initial public offerings Category:Disney India Category:Disney acquisitions Category:2012 mergers and acquisitions Category:Producers who won the Best Feature Film National Film Award Category:Producers who won the Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment National Film Award Category:Producers who won the Best Debut Feature Film of a Director National Film Award Category:Producers who won the Best Children's Film National Film Award